Naval Academy, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Naval Academy, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Naval Academy lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Naval Academy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Naval Academy — the short answer
Naval Academy, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 268 days between hard freezes, across 342 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~268
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 342 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Naval Academy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Naval Academy's 268-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Naval Academy
Each reading below is measured for Naval Academy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNaval Academy runs about 268 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNaval Academy sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Naval Academy is in
Naval Academy sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Naval Academy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Anne Arundel County.
What Grows in Naval Academy
Every plant below cleared Naval Academy's own zone 8a and its 268-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Naval Academy?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Naval Academy
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Naval Academy, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Naval Academy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Naval Academy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AA Df 12Nitrate · 1800 ft
- AA Df 13Nitrate · 1800 ft
- AA Df 9Nitrate · 1800 ft
- Porter Road Lift StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JAMES BRICE HOUSEBrownfields · 2400 ft
- ST JOHN PRINTINGBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Jane Campbell - Chambliss & AssociatesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- U.S. Naval Academy,Fuel Sta.Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- U.S. Naval Academy- LaundryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Sofi's CrepesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- City of AnnapolisUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- City Dock RestaurantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Naval Academy's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Naval Academy.
Total Sites
1,042
within ~10 miles of Naval Academy
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Naval Academy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Naval Academy
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Naval Academy
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Naval Academy average
Your land is one point inside Naval Academy
Everything above resolves to Naval Academy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 342 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Naval Academy Average
Naval Academy Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Naval Academy
- ●One soil character for all of Naval Academy
- ●Frost dates read at Naval Academy's scale: Mar 10 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Naval Academy's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Naval Academy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Naval Academy, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Naval Academy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Naval Academy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Naval Academy average
How we know this about Naval Academy
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Naval Academy’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Naval Academy
When does frost risk typically end in Naval Academy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Naval Academy typically lands around Mar 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Mar 31.
When is the first frost in Naval Academy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Naval Academy typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 268 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Naval Academy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Naval Academy sees about 268 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 19, about 233 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Naval Academy?
The federal record around Naval Academy is a meaningful one — 1,042 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (508), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Naval Academy?
From about Nov 3 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Naval Academy's scale — its 8a band and its 268-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Naval Academy's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Naval Academy’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Naval Academy's own scale — its own ~268-day season between 28°F freezes, the 342 acres it covers and 1,042 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Naval Academy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Naval Academy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Dec 3 and the ~268-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,042 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Naval Academy, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Naval Academy's boundary and the 342 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~268-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Naval Academy's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Naval Academylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Naval Academy's 342 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Anne Arundel County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Anne Arundel County
- The growing challenges every Maryland grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Maryland
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Anne Arundel County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Naval Academy's 342 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Naval Academy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 342 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Naval Academy-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maryland
Wider growing context
What grows across MarylandNaval Academy sits outside our named growing regions, so Maryland as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides